13-storey apartments for Royal Canal
SEAN Mulryan’s Ballymore Group has won fast-track planning approval to build 435 apartments in blocks up to 13 storeys high on the site of the demolished Ormond Printworks in Dublin.
The 1.9-hectare site sits north of the Royal Canal, south of Tolka Valley Park and 650 metres west of the Broombridge train and Luas station via the canal towpath.
An Bord Pleanála granted permission subject to 23 conditions. These included an order not to allow the final 135 apartments to be occupied until adequate sewage services were confirmed, and installation of “enhanced acoustic glazing” for windows facing the nearby Irish Rail line.
In his accompanying report, inspector Tom Rabbette found that the proposed development would deliver “much needed rejuvenation”. He noted that the demolished printworks employed 75, whereas the new development – with plans for offices, a primary healthcare facility, pharmacy, crèche, gym and juice bar – was projected to create 295 jobs on site.
Mr Rabbette noted that, while two of the five blocks would reach 13 storeys, they would remain below the local area plan’s cap of 50 metres on building height. He said the Ballymore design would not “have an adverse visual impact on the immediate or wider area” and did not require height reductions.
“The existing visual amenities the site offers are, at best, poor,” he wrote.
The proposed development “is replacing a utilitarian brownfield wasteland with a new mixed-use urban block”.
The plan faced 33 objections, including that local schools and crèches were full.